Begun in 1846, the West Side Freight Line was the
only freight railroad directly into Manhattan.

Some old photos of the West Side Freight Line. These are from a brochure published by
the New York Central in 1934 and re-issued by the West Side Rail Line Development
Foundation (author was a former member and supporter of this foundation).

The NYC&HR local passenger service was pretty much a connection at Spuyten Duyvil arrangement from the opening of the original Grand Central from the timetables I've seen (
See June 26, 1921 Employee Timetable). The opening of the Elevated reduced traffic considerably; the opening of the IRT finished off most ridership; the trolley and El, Trolley/IRT was quite a bit cheaper. A Nickel could get you all the way downtown from 125th St (especially on the IRT) -- without the change at 30th, for example.

Somewhere along the line, I had understood that this limited passenger service was eliminated in 1918 during WW1. However, that was a temporary measure as seen by the 1921 timetable. One mystery solved. Tommy Meehan sent me a newspaper article from January 13, 1918 that explains it to be only temporary.

I am going to break down what little research is available into several categories
(1) What we know about West Side Freight Line passenger trains.
(2) Great facts thanks to Tommy Meehan
(3) Remaining mysteries about West Side Freight Line passenger trains.
(4) Other (cool?) stuff about the West Side Freight Line.

Photo was taken about at W. 31st Street & 11th Avenue looking east slightly southeast.
From the 1920s era showing the station area.

What we know about West Side Freight Line passenger trains.

There was a passenger train called the "Dolly Varden", a local train leaving 30th Street station on the west side going to Spuyten Duyvil. "This train became such a symbol both to railroaders and West Siders that for years it was continued on the time-table after it actually ceased to operate."

I don't know for sure why NYC kept those passenger trains on the West Side up to the 1930's, but there were probably several reasons:
1. To carry employees down to 60th and 30th Streets, at least until the subway was put into service.
2. NY State Public Service Commission would not approve discontinuance.
3. Some U. S. Mail might have been handled locally, and maybe some company mail.
4. After they quit hauling passengers, and even into Penn Central, there were first class trains running between 30th St and Spuyten Duyvil for mail and express. No's. 3 and 13 went to Chicago, and the 800 series trains ran to and from Harmon with head-end traffic to and from the west.
5. To preserve the franchise for passengers on the West Side. From a story that was in the June 15 1931 edition of the New York Times. The occasion was the final use of steam on the line. The final paragraph mentions the West Side passenger service, though it doesn't seem very accurate. It sounds like what the reporter actually saw was a milk transfer run with a rider car attached for the crew. I do believe it is accurate insofar as the Tri-power units were probably used to haul the passenger trains. I'd be very surprised if they used MU cars, even to tow them, but of course it's possible.

Photo was taken about mid-block on W. 30th Street between 10th and 11th Avenues. It is looking northeast, with W. 31st Street out of sight to the extreme left." That's 10th Avenue in the background, of course. It is dated, June 1931, showing the area after demolition. Note the end of a passenger car visible in the left corner, though the windows may be boarded up, it's hard to tell.

Great facts thanks to Tommy Meehan.

The two points that interest me the most is when the West Side Line passenger service stopped running and when the 30th Street station was closed.

In the R&LHS-NY Chapter monthly newsletter we have been running a multi-part series about efforts by the city to relocate the West Side Line, to get it off city streets, this started in earnest in 1905. Unfortunately it's a very complex story, very political, and we're only up to 1918! As a historical society we don't accept anything as fact unless it can be documented, though.

There are obviously a couple of tracks still in place so if the Central was still running the West Side service, did they have a makeshift boarding area located there? Along W. 31st Street? It seems likely but without some documentation I wouldn't presume it.

I read the TRAINS forum thread you sent. While there was obviously a lot of bad information as to the West Side Line, based on uninformed speculation, I was surprised to see the claim by TimZ that he has a 1934 ETT showing the passenger trains were still running. I'm acquainted with Tim and he is very reliable. If he says he has an 1934 ETT showing the passenger trains were still running, for me that is pretty convincing.

A former NYC employee once said he would guess the West Side trains stopped running around 1931 as that was when the old terminal area at W. 30th Street & 10th Avenue was leveled to make way for the USPS Morgan Annex.

Btw, the street running along Eleventh Avenue was never equipped with third-rail. That would've been very risky and the City of New York would never have permitted it. Another fact, about the slow running times, don't forget these trains had to be proceeded by a man on horseback. If that didn't slow them down enough, than you had vehicle traffic along Eleventh Avenue.

Remaining mysteries about West Side Freight Line passenger trains.

The big remaining questions are:
(1) When did this passenger service stop?
(2) What type of equipment did they use?

Note: much of our material is from various blogs and forums. As you can tell, some of the facts seem like heresay.

Earlier in 1893 a Rapid Transit proposal would have elevated the West Side line of NY Central from 30th to 69th and connected it to the 9th Avenue El.

In 1893 the Times says on the main line the 59th Street station was never used, 72nd Street once a day, 86th Street and 110th Street stations "semi-occasionally" used...this he also proposed for Rapid Transit expansion.

A local was scheduled to leave 30th St in the morning; 20-40 minutes after it arrived Spuyten Duyvil a local was scheduled from there to 30th St. Ditto in the afternoon-- the equipment (whatever it was) was at 30th St overnight and midday, far as we can tell from the TT. While there were no engine servicing facilites at Spuyten Dyvil, there was a fully equipped yard at Morris Heights.

The elevated line from 30th St to the so-called St John's Park terminal opened in 1934, but the depressed line from 60th St down to 35th didn't open until June 1937. So all trains ran in the street on 11th Ave until then-- so no third rail south of 59th St until 1937 at least.

My understanding was that the entire line was grade separated by the time the elevated St. John's Park Terminal opened, but that some street trackage paralleling the new line remained in place to serve specific customers not served by the elevated line. I think the electrification to 30th Street went into place with the grade separation. Indeed, I think some of the street trackage remained in place almost up to WWII and perhaps during the war.

I understand the electrification extended down to 30th street for trains to the P. O. annex.

Eventually third rail got down to 30th St or thereabouts, but in 1935 the line from 60th St to 30th St was still street running, on 11th Ave.

Thanks for an authoritative answer. I was wrong about l93l, then it was '34 or '35. Possibly when Riverside Park was extended over the tracks and the West Side Highway built north of 72nd street the service was abandoned, and this was 1935.
Understand the electrification extended down to 30th street for trains to the P. O. annex, and I suspect mu equipment was normal for the two daily trains each way.

The 1919 and 1934 employee timetables shows two passenger trains each way on the West Side: a morning round trip 30th To Spuyten Duyvil and back, and ditto in the afternoon. They're not in the 1938.

Other (cool?) stuff about the West Side Freight Line.

From a 1939 NY Times article on the reopening of 11th Avenue north of 41st after they finally removed the rails...very interesting history, of the loss of color now that the "10th Avenue Cowboys" were gone (the guys on horseback with red flags to warn of the locomotive behind)..Kids played on the freights and got hurt...the street was the lesser known improvement, 8th and 6th Avenue being better known (removal of Els)

Then an interesting letter to the editor from 12/13/1904 suggesting that the New York Central build a new bigger station at 30th Street, route most traffic there and build an underground passage to the new Pennsylvania Station for connections south....I wonder if this was really a letter writer, his name was Constant Reader.

I know that when the New York and Northern (later the Putnam Division) terminated outside the Polo Grounds it connected with and transferred baggage onto the New York Elevated Rail Road.....the southern point, with a NY& Northern ticket office and baggage handling, was at 30th Street on the 9th Avenue El, passengers would come down using that amazingly high S curve at the NW corner of Central Park.

August 23, 1902 at 96th Street where the New York Central tracks skirted Riverside Park, a northbound train hit two running children, 4 year old William Achnitz of 807 Amsterdam. 7 year old Julia Myers of 72 West Ninety-eighth may get well, doctors said. "The train which did the cruel work was the "Dolly Varden," of cheerful name but murderous record, and is the sole relic of the hundreds of Hudson River Railroad passenger trains which used to thunder up and down the same roadbed to the old Thirtieth Street Station in the days when the Park Avenue tunnel was still a dream and when their course lay all the way past wooded hills and pasture land, instead of the crowded city which the "Dolly Varden" traverses in these latter days."..The children had been on the old dock (this is 1902) and heading back...the train was moving slow but they panicked. The policeman road the train to the end of its run at the main line junction at Spuyten Duyvil, and then arrested the engineer, William Laspointe.

Here we are in July 1893 and the West Side Gang made another raid Friday afternoon on the "Dolly Varden" train of the New-York Central Railroad, running between Thirtieth Street station and Spuyten Duyvil. ..half a dozen were caught and are now on Blackwell's Island serving two months

About 3 o'clock, as the train stopped at a crossing at Eleventh Avenue and Thirty-third...a score of rough young men jump on the train...they annoyed the passengers by singing...they wouldn't pay a fair, and started abusing the conductor and brakeman, threatening to attack them, they jumped out the windows and ran down the platforms but were apprehended...they had been very obnoxious it reads......they had been very obnoxious it reads...this after the train was stopped by alerted police at 59th Street & 11th, "for a moment there was a lively time on the 'Dolly Varden'" The article was titled Ruffians Threaten Trainmen

Dolly Varden is a character in Charles Dickens' novel "Barnaby Rudge" quite flirtatious her favorite attire a green dress with pink polka dots.

A Dolly Varden is also a fish in the Arctic Char family, they are dark with light colored spots.....the Dolly Varden fish was once considered a "trash fish" and a threat to salmon as it was thought the char ate salmon fry and eggs. Bounties were put on the Dolly Vardens. 6 million were killed 1921 to 1940...people were paid by the tails they turned in...Later the US Bureau of Fisheries discovered that most of the tails were from trout and coho salmon...Dolly Vardens coexisted with salmon for thousands of years...the declines were man-made...Dolly Vardens are a distinct species it is now known...they are the exact opposite coloration from trout and salmon who have dark spots on light background bodies, but are protected by US Fish and Wildlife under a "similarity of appearance" provision of the Endangered Species Act because the Dolly Varden resembles the threatened Bull Trout, a threatened species (but it is opposite...oh, never mind...) Dolly Varden= Salvelinus malma

Dolly Varden is a music group from Chicago, "forging roots music that mixes rock and pop and folk and country in a manner that is heavy on the heartfelt and light on the cliched" since 1995, or so it reads, supposedly they have sparked a "veritable alt-country revival" The band is named after the fish, not the Dickens' character.

Dolly Varden was the name of an early anti-political party movement in the 1800's, anti-bossism was another of their causes., it was strongest in Nevada. The Dolly Varden mine was discovered in (present Elko County) June 1869. It became one of the richest copper mines in southern Elko County (!)..a drop in prices closed the mine until 1905..by 1927 it was abandoned..it is a ghost town today.

By Ken Kinlock at kenkinlock@gmail.com with A LOT of assistance and contributions from
Tommy Meehan of the R&LHS-NY Chapter

is a great resource freight on the New York Central.
They cover all the railroads who provided freight service to New York City. Their data on the
West Side Freight Line is a great supplement to our site.

St Johns Freight House

Photo at left is of the St Johns Park Freight House. These are from a brochure published by
the New York Central in 1934 and re-issued by the West Side Rail Line Development
Foundation (author was a former member and supporter of this foundation).

St. John's Park was abandoned when some of the High Line ROW below Bank St. was
sold for housing. But had traffic there dried up by then?
Was there any debate over it at the time?
The line was only about 20 years old at that time.
When St. John's was in service, there were about 8 tracks running into it--
how was it switched? And what kind of stuff was shipped to St. John's.
Also, the line served Nabisco, Armour--when did they stop using the line?
And did the RR serve Bell Labs (now Westbeth) whose building it ran through?

New York Central Milk Business
There were two basic types of milk trains – the very slow all-stops local that picked up milk cans from rural platforms and delivered them to a local creamery, and those that moved consolidated carloads from these creameries to big city bottling plants. Individual cars sometimes moved on lesser trains. These were dedicated trains of purpose-built cars carrying milk. Early on, all milk was shipped in cans, which lead to specialized "can cars" with larger side doors to facilitate loading and unloading (some roads just used baggage cars). In later years, bulk carriers with glass-lined tanks were used. Speed was the key to preventing spoilage, so milk cars were set up for high speed service, featuring the same types of trucks, brakes, communication & steam lines as found on passenger cars. MILK TRAINS WERE IMPORTANT
CUSTOMERS ON THE WEST SIDE FREIGHT LINE

Donald Trump recently opened up a stretch of Riverside Park between 59th and 74th Street,
alongside a recent development of his where the old West Side Rail Yards used to be.
Amtrak tracks still run underground here, but freight tracks used to be right at grade
here and this was, as most waterfront areas in New York used to be, a vital
area for shipping and commerce. Those days are gone, but twisted,
decaying wreckage remains.

How many carloads of foodstuffs and fuel are delivered by the railroads
daily in New York City and vicinity?

The railroads deliver approximately 4,000 carloads of foodstuffs and fuel
in New York City and suburbs every twenty-four hours, on the average.
Like alert racing thoroughbreds at the post, these powerful titans wait
for the "go" signal. A century of engineering research has gone into
the production of the modern steam locomotive.

What ever happened to my Penn Central stock?

Penn Central gobbled up the stock of New York Central, Pennsylvania and New Haven Railroads.
But what ever happened to the company and the stock? Is it worth anything?

of the New York Central Railroad.
First-generation diesels! Passenger and freight runs. Much more!

The West Shore got as close to New York City as across the river in New Jersey.
Passengers took a ferry while freight went across the river on car floats.
Click on the picture to see more on ferries and car floats.

NYC had two ferry routes to the West Shore Weehawhen terminal.
The "regular" route was from the foot of W.42nd St. (also the terminal
of the 42nd St. crosstown and 10th Ave. streetcar lines), and one to
Cortlandt St., adjacent to the CNJ's Liberty St. ferry terminal.

Adjacent to the West Shore Ferry at Cortlandt Street Manhattan was the
Starrin lines shipping. They had barges full of freight cars in this area
but there were no tracks in lower manhattan. These were
"station carfloats" -- almost like a "floating team track", they had a
(usually sheltered) platform down the middle, where cars could be unloaded
and the contents moved onto shore. They were especially common on the
Lower W. Side, adjacent to the old Washington Market.

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